Are you an SEJ member who's authored, co-authored or edited a non-fiction or fiction environmental book (published in 2023 or 2024) you'd like included on this page? Documentaries are also welcome. Please send the following to web content manager Cindy MacDonald:

1. a one-paragraph description (200 words max)
2. name of publisher and year of publication
3. ISBN number
4. .png, .gif or .jpg image of the book's front cover (optional)
5. Internet link to more information (optional) 

Members' books published in: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007 and earlier.

MEMBERS: Advertise your environmental book in the SEJournal e-newsletter for only $50, with a graphic ad that links to the URL of your choice. You supply the ad. Order form (you'll need your member log-in info). SEJ members only.

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Non-Fiction

 

"At Home on an Unruly Planet: Finding Refuge on a Changed Earth"

By Madeline Ostrander

One of Kirkus Reviews' 100 best nonfiction books of the year. A gold Nautilus Book Award winner, ecology & environment. How do we find a sense of home and rootedness in a time of unprecedented upheaval? Once a distant forecast, climate change is now reaching into the familiar, forcing us to reexamine how we live. In "At Home on an Unruly Planet," journalist Madeline Ostrander reflects on this crisis not as an abstract scientific or political problem but as a palpable force that is now affecting all of us at home. She offers vivid accounts of people fighting to protect places they love from dangerous circumstances. A firefighter works to rebuild her town after catastrophic western wildfires. A Florida preservationist strives to protect one of North America's most historic cities from rising seas. An urban farmer struggles to transform a California city plagued by fossil fuel disasters. An Alaskan community heads for higher ground as its land erodes. Ostrander pairs deeply reported stories of hard-won optimism with lyrical essays on the strengths we need in an era of crisis. The book is required reading for anyone who wants to make a home in the twenty-first century. Holt Paperbacks, 2023. ISBN: 9781250871411. More information.

• BookShelf Review/Interview: "Between the Lines — Author Explores Experience of Living Through Climate Change," SEJournal, November 29, 2023.

 

 

"The Climate Pandemic: How Climate Disruption Threatens Human Survival"

By Dennis Meredith

"The Climate Pandemic" documents that many of people's beliefs about climate disruption are myths — the most critical being that our species will somehow manage to survive the relentless onslaught of climate disruption. Other myths include that current plans to limit global heating will avoid climate catastrophe; that renewable energy will offer a major clean energy source; and that decarbonizing our energy system is a realistic goal. The book is the most comprehensive explanation of the science, technology, politics, economics and psychology of climate disruption. Its bibliography lists more than 1,700 hyperlinked entries — peer-reviewed scientific papers, books and reports from government and international agencies and scientific associations. The book explains the science of climate-driven heat waves, megadroughts, wildfires, floods and superstorms. It explores the human impacts of climate disruption: increased toxicity and disease, famine, migration, conflict and societal collapse. It documents the failure of the mainstream media, scientists, environmentalists, corporations and politicians to act on climate disruption. And it reveals how the Paris agreement, renewable energy, carbon capture, geoengineering and nuclear power are unrealistic panaceas. As our mission for the future, the book advocates that we dedicate ourselves to palliating our planet, preserving as much as we can. Glyphus, 2023. ASIN: B0BN727963. More information.

 

 

"Curious Species: How Animals Made Natural History"

By Whitney Barlow Robles

Can corals build worlds? Do rattlesnakes enchant? What is a raccoon, and what might it know? Animals and the questions they raised thwarted human efforts to master nature during the so-called Enlightenment — a historical moment when rigid classification pervaded the study of natural history, people traded in people and imperial avarice wrapped its tentacles around the globe. Whitney Barlow Robles makes animals the unruly protagonists of eighteenth-century science through journeys to four spaces and ecological zones: the ocean, the underground, the curiosity cabinet and the field. Her forays reveal a forgotten lineage of empirical inquiry: one that forced researchers to embrace uncertainty. This tumultuous era in the history of human-animal encounters still haunts modern biologists and ecologists as they struggle to fathom animals today. In an eclectic fusion of history and nature writing, Robles alternates between careful historical investigations and probing personal narratives. Her excavations reveal the animal foundations of human knowledge — and also show why tackling our current environmental crisis first requires looking back in time. Yale University Press, 2023. ISBN: 9780300266184. More information.

 

 

"The Deepest Map: The High-Stakes Race to Chart the World's Oceans"

By Laura Trethewey

In "The Deepest Map," Laura Trethewey chronicles this race to the bottom. Following global efforts around the world, she documents Inuit-led crowdsourced mapping in the Arctic as climate change alters the landscape, a Texas millionaire’s efforts to become the first man to dive to the deepest point in each ocean and the increasingly fraught question of whether and how to mine the deep sea. A true tale of science, nature, technology and extreme outdoor adventure, "The Deepest Map" both illuminates why we love — and fear — the Earth’s final frontier and contributes to increasingly urgent conversations about climate change. Harper Collins, 2023. ISBN: 978-0-06-309995-1. More information.

 

 

"Eight Bears: Mythic Past and Imperiled Future"

By Gloria Dickie

Bears have always held a central place in our collective memory, from Indigenous folklore and Greek mythology to nineteenth-century fairytales and the modern toy shop. But as humans and bears come into ever-closer contact, our relationship nears a tipping point. Today, most of the eight remaining bear species are threatened with extinction. Some, such as the panda bear and the polar bear, are icons of the natural world; others, such as the spectacled bear and the sloth bear, are far less known. In "Eight Bears," journalist Gloria Dickie embarks on a globe-trotting journey to explore each bear’s story, whisking readers from the cloud forests of the Andes to the ice floes of the Arctic; from the jungles of India to the backwoods of the Rocky Mountain West. W.W. Norton & Co., 2023. ISBN: 1324005084. More information.

 

 

"Gaslight: The Atlantic Coast Pipeline and the Fight for America's Energy Future"

By Jonathan Mingle

Journalist Jonathan Mingle tells the story of an epic, six-year battle between one of the country’s most powerful energy companies and the ordinary citizens who stood in the way of its massive fossil gas pipeline. On one side stood Dominion Energy, an archetypal Goliath: a corporation that commands billions of dollars and unparalleled influence over state politicians and federal government agencies alike. On the other, a diverse band of Davids: lawyers and farmers, conservationists and conservatives, innkeepers and lobbyists, scientists and nurses. Communities fought Dominion and compliant regulators in a struggle that went all the way to the Supreme Court. The company insisted the pipeline was in the public interest because it would carry natural gas, long framed by the industry as a “bridge fuel” to a clean energy future – despite mounting evidence of the climate risks posed by leaking methane and carbon emissions from new gas infrastructure. Mingle weaves that larger story of the industry’s decades-long public relations campaign to sell a fossil fuel as a “climate solution” together with the gripping, on-the-ground narrative of grassroots resistance in Virginia’s hills. Publisher’s Weekly called it “a riveting report” that “transforms ‘regulatory wrangling’ into a propulsive story.” Island Press, 2024. ISBN: 9781642832488. More information.

 

 

"The Heat and the Fury: On the Frontlines of Climate Violence"

By Peter Schwartzstein

British-American environmental journalist Peter Schwartzstein tells the story of the largely overlooked ways in which climate stress is fueling everything from urban crime to old school piracy and terror group recruitment. From the ravaged villages of Iraq, where ISIS has used drought as a recruiting tool and weapon of terror, to the pirate-ridden waters of Bangladesh — and drawing on more than a decade of reporting from dozens of countries — Schwartzstein writes about the unexpected ways in which climate change is feeding global unrest and conflict. Through the stories of the soldiers, farmers, spies and others affected around the world, he makes sense of a form of conflict that remains poorly understood, even as it devastates the lives of so many millions of people. In "The Heat and the Fury," we learn how much of a threat this chaos also presents closer to home: from exploding military arsenals to intensifying violence against women during periods of extreme heat, Western countries are not immune. Above all, this is a hands-on investigation of climate's increasingly violent frontlines, providing a further glimpse into the ways in which global warming is affecting our planet and its inhabitants. But, as Schwartzstein's unparalleled reporting shows, there's nothing inevitable about climate violence. In fact, as he sets out, the same stresses that are pitching people against one another can even help bring them back together. Island Press, 2024. ISBN: 978-1-64283-301-0. More information.

 

 

"Kings of Their Own Ocean: Tuna, Obsession, and the Future of Our Seas"

By Karen Pinchin

"Kings of Their Own Ocean" is an urgent investigation that combines science, business, crime and environmental justice. It's a tale of human obsession, one intrepid tuna, the dedicated fisherman who caught and set her free, the promises and limits of ocean science, and the big truth of how our insatiable appetite for bluefin transformed a cottage industry into a global dilemma. As Pinchin writes, "as a global community, we are collectively only ever a few terrible choices away from wiping out any ocean species." Through her exclusive access and interdisciplinary, mesmerizing lens, readers will join her on boats and docks as she visits tuna hot spots and scientists from Portugal to Japan, New Jersey to Nova Scotia, and glimpse, as the author does, rays of dazzling hope for the future of our oceans. Penguin Random House, 2023. ISBN: 9780593471470. More information.

 

 

"Power Metal: The Race for the Resources That Will Shape the Future"

By Vince Beiser

The powerful ways the metals we need to fuel technology and energy are spawning environmental havoc, political upheaval, and rising violence — and how we can do better. An Australian millionaire’s plan to mine the ocean floor. Nigerian garbage pickers risking their lives to salvage e-waste. A Bill Gates-backed entrepreneur harnessing AI to find metals in the Arctic. These people and millions more are part of the intensifying competition to find and extract the minerals essential for two crucial technologies: the internet and renewable energy. In "Power Metal," Vince Beiser explores the Achilles’ heel of “green power” and digital technology — that manufacturing computers, cell phones, electric cars and other technologies demand skyrocketing amounts of lithium, copper, cobalt and other materials. Around the world, businesses and governments are scrambling for new places and new ways to get those metals, at enormous cost to people and the planet. Beiser crisscrossed the world to talk to the people involved and report on the damage this race is inflicting, the ways it could get worse and how we can minimize the damage. "Power Metal" is a compelling glimpse into this disturbing yet potentially promising new world. Riverhead Books, November 19, 2024. ISBN: 9780593541708. More information.

 

 

"Restoring Eden: Unearthing the Agribusiness Secret That Poisoned My Farming Community"

By Elizabeth D. Hilborn

Hilborn welcomes us to her North Carolina fruit farm tucked within a vibrant forest filled with flowers and wildlife. But in spring 2017 she found a familiar wetland still and silent. Within weeks birds, bees, butterflies and other wildlife died or disappeared. Hilborn reached out to neighbors, experts and local officials, but no one could tell her what had happened. So, she searched to find the killer. What she learned affects all of us all: the future of our food supply is at stake. Part investigative journalism, part memoir and part popular science, Hilborn ultimately offers hope for a secure food future and shows how change is possible. “A beautifully descriptive, lyrical immersion in the natural world that’s coupled with a detective story, reminiscent of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.” — LIBRARY JOURNAL. "...Restoring Eden is indeed a page-turner. Beautifully written … and deeply informed, this superb and crucial book should not be necessary — but it is. Life itself is at stake and we are all involved.” — Carl Safina, MacArthur Fellow and author of "Becoming Wild." 2023 SONWA winner. Chicago Review Press, 2023. ISBN: 9781641609388. More information.

 

 

"Vanishing North: Minnesota Species at Risk of Extinction, and the People Dedicated to Saving Them"

By James Eli Shiffer, Jennifer Bjorhus and Greg Stanley

The Star Tribune in Minnesota published "Vanishing North" based on their series of the same name. Through the eyes of people dedicated to saving threatened species — like the weird globin fern, prehistoric-looking paddle fish and nearly extinct Poweshiek skipperling butterfly — the series looks at the mass extinction underway and efforts to fight it, on a very local level. The photography is stunning. SEJ members: Project editor James Eli Shiffer and reporters Jennifer Bjorhus and Greg Stanley. Star Tribune, 2023. ISBN: 979-8-218-14755-6. More information.

 

 

"Windfall: The Prairie Woman Who Lost Her Way and the Great-Granddaughter Who Found Her"

By Erika Bolstad

At first, Erika Bolstad knew only one thing about her great-grandmother, Anna: she was a homesteader on the North Dakota prairies in the early 1900s before her husband committed her to an asylum under mysterious circumstances. As Erika's mother was dying, she revealed more. Their family still owned the mineral rights to Anna's land―and oil companies were interested in the black gold beneath the prairies. Their family, Erika learned, could get rich thanks to the legacy of a woman nearly lost to history. Anna left no letters or journals, and very few photographs of her had survived. But Erika was drawn to the young woman who never walked free of the asylum that imprisoned her. As a journalist well versed in the effects of fossil fuels on climate change, Erika felt the dissonance of what she knew and the barely-acknowledged whisper that had followed her family across the Great Plains for generations: we could be rich. Desperate to learn more about her great-grandmother and the oil industry that changed the face of the American West forever, Erika set out for North Dakota to unearth what she could of the past. What she discovers is a land of boom-and-bust cycles and families trying their best to eke out a living in an unforgiving landscape, bringing to life the ever-present American question: What does it mean to be rich? Sourcebooks, 2023. ISBN: 1728246938. More information.